On 67/68 Ram Air cars, It was recommended the open scoops be changed out with closed scoops during inclement weather. My question is how would closed scoops work with the RA pan since it closes off air to the carb? Were you supposed to remove the lower pan as well? But then you wouldnt have an air filter in place.

Just don't drive the car in bad weather

There was a raging debate on this subject here probably several years back.

Several members pointed out that they had driven their car with a factory Ram Air setup in the rain and did not have any real issues.

I've had open scoops on for years, winter, spring, summer and fall. May not have been the smartest thing to do but the car never quit in rain.

Now I'm not going to drive it in wet weather ever, if possible.

Not worth the rust issues. The air is damp enough without the rain.

If you think rain is bad, just watch out for those birds!

I can see how it might be ok driving it in the rain as the lower pan has drain holes. So I dont think it would flood the pan enough to allow water in through the carb.
But I am curious why GM instructed the driver to change out scoops in bad weather and how the engine was supposed to breathe with closed scoops in place.

I've never seen any evidence that you were supposed to reinstall the closed hood scoops. I'm not even sure how that myth was started, but many people state this as fact.

The 67-68 Firebird Ram Air setups (and 66-68 GTO Ram Air cars) were delivered with their Ram Air setups in the trunk. The dealer then made the necessary underhood bracing cuts, opened the scoops, and installed the Ram Air system. The original air cleaner, with the pre-heater duct, was given back to the customer. In inclement weather, you were supposed to re-install the closed air cleaner assembly and pre-heater duct, but you wouldn't change out the hood scoops, they remained open.

The 1969 Ram Air setup was totally redesigned, and had driver controlled hood flaps (except the Trans Am), so they were delivered with their Ram Air setups already in place.

The 1969 Hurst/Olds had a similar setup to the 67-68 Firebird, where the hood scoops could not be closed in inclement weather, but there was only one air cleaner for the Hurst/Olds (a derivative of the Ford Ram Air unit). Oldsmobile soon issued a tech bulletin directing Olds dealers to drill a series of small holes in the base of the Hurst/Olds air cleaner, as there were reports of rain water clogging (and flooding) air cleaner base.

The 1969 Hurst/Olds had huge scoops, located near the leading edge of the hood, so driving down the highway in heavy rain would allow water spray from other cars to get into the scoops. The small, centrally located 65-68 GTO and 67-68 Firebird hood scoops didn't have that problem.

Next time I see a nearby original owner of a RA, I'll ask him about this.

I believe Stealthbird is right. I remember seeing these RA installation instructions, and sure enough, it says owner is to reuse the original duct assembly.
If you save this to your desktop you can enlarge the picture.



Makes sense, thanks for replying.
Now I need to find a 400 duct assembly for rainy days

Drove our car for years with wide open ram air intakes with the pans in place. When we moved to FL I can not tell you how many times we got caught in absolute torrential down pours and never once did it cause a single problem. In fact, I pulled over one time convinced the pans must have been "full of water" nope, not even a drop!!! And we were driving on the I-4 at 50mph at the time, that's why I figured there must have been a ton of water in the pan. We were coming home from Daytona Beach and drove 20 miles on I-4 in that crap and when I pulled off the exit I got out and popped the hood, got absolutely soaked to find that there was zero water in the bottom of the lower carb pan! After that, I never once worried about it ever again!

Somewhere I have the 1969 Oldsmobile bulletin about how they instructed the dealers to drill holes in the bottom of the Hurst/Olds assembly. The holes weren't random, they specified exactly where they should be drilled in order to avoid water being dumped on crucial parts, like the distributor, heat crossover (which would have created steam), throttle linkage, etc.

My brother used a couple pieces of foam to plug the scoops on his GTO when he washed it. Other than that, he never worried about water getting in through the scoops, and he drove it year round, including through some harsh Chicago winters.

The repop ram air pans for the FGF from WarPath have the drain holes in them already. Obviously they work just fine because as stated above I never once had an issue with mine in all the years of driving our bird daily here in FL...

Kind of makes sense when they say the scoops didn't really get any extra air in if none of the water was carried in by outside air either.

Evidently not, when we were caught in the horrendous down pour I was actually thinking that when I opened the hood that the lower pan was going to actually be FULL of water! Honestly, that's how bad it was coming down, I would have given anything to see the look on my own face my I opened the hood and realized there wasn't a drop in that pan! LOL

I have the TA hood where can I get a good deal on the rest of the RA system? Who has at a reasonable price?

Try Warpath : http://www.warpath-parts.com/fr.htm
Bought my pans from them a couple years ago and it was the best deal, best quality and best fit.

It does seem to be work, but you were suppose to put back on all air cleaner parts and scoops in bad weather. That is why the 68 GTO and FB top plates have access holes for the scoop studs.

The original closed scoops were not touched. An extra set came with the car for the dealer to open them. At some point Pontiac started shipping open scoops with the car (part numbers were assigned for the open 68 FB and GTO scoops midyear).

My own opinion is this was really meant for us northern winter drivers as they stress reinstalling the preheat tube, even giving you a new one. Seems crazy now, but some of these cars got driven all year long. I drove a 69 4sp Judge through two winters in 84/85. I’d kick my own @#$@ if I did that today.



Berndude – shoot me a PM if you’re interested in the 67/68 system. If you are talking about the 69 system, there is only one current source – Parts Place. They are the importer, so everyone out there cataloging them, gets them from PP.